Americans contributed a tick more in 2025 than they did in 2024 in funds, items donated and volunteerism, according to data in the GivingPulse Year in Review, a new report from GivingTuesday.
Among those who were asked about their activities during a previous seven-day period 97.2% claimed to have made some sort of contribution, compared with 96.4% during 2024. Nearly nine in 10 (87%) contributed money, up from 80.6% a year earlier. Just more than six in 10 (60.5%) donated items, an increase from 58.3%, and 44.7% volunteered, in line with the 44.5% who reported doing so during 2024.
Much of that generosity was the result of recipients making their needs known. As the report authors wrote: “The most powerful driver of American generosity isn’t wealth or willingness – it is whether people remember being asked to participate.” During 2025, 41% of those surveyed were able to identify a recent crisis or disaster they might have seen in the news, an increase of 2.7% from 2024. Of those, around 25% made a contribution as a result of the news of the crisis and 42% expressed an interest in doing so. Donors cited natural disasters such as January 2025’s California wildfire and July 2025’s floods in Texas as spurring their actions.
Overall, 73.4% of donors who knew about crises made some form of contribution, compared with 59.8% of those who didn’t. Any news served to boost giving: 80.3% of those who heard a negative story about an organization made a contribution, compared with 63.7% who hadn’t, while 83.9% who had been exposed to positive news gave, as opposed to 54.9% who hadn’t heard a positive news story.
The report authors acknowledged the counterintuitive nature of this finding. “People who closely follow nonprofit news may simply be more civically engaged to begin with, or people who already give may be more attuned to charity-related stories, positive and negative alike,” they wrote. They also suggested that “respondents who recalled nonprofit news stories also scored higher on measures of community involvement and social awareness, suggesting that attention to the nonprofit sector is itself a signal of broader civic engagement.”
All this supports the idea that in addition to making asks, recipients benefit when they can generate broader attention to their causes. Potential funders who had heard about a crisis gave at higher rates than those who had not. However, the increasingly fragmented media environment makes getting word out regarding these needs more challenging than ever. Donors themselves have slowed their rates of overall advocacy, with only 37.2% promoting causes, down from 40.3% a year earlier. This despite online advocacy rates rising throughout the year, starting at 14% during first-quarter 2025 and ending the year at 19%.
In all, nearly two-thirds (65%) of Americans made some form of donation during 2025. But half of Americans did not recall being asked to give, and GivingTuesday research suggests between $19 billion and $46 billion might be left on the table.
Among donors, amounts given remained constant. The $50 donors who were sampled weekly reported giving was equal to the same amount in 2024. As might be expected, the amount given correlated with reported income. Donors who made less than $75,000 annually gave between $25 and $30, those with incomes between $75,000 and $150,000 gave $40 to $50, and those earning in excess of $150,000 gave between $80 and $100. While the numbers were largely consistent with 2024’s levels, lower-income donors did give a little more during the second and third quarters than they did the previous year.
For 2025, at least, donors are showing resiliency in terms of their willingness to make financial contributions. During the past two years, the percentage of people indicating giving puts a financial strain on them remained at 46%. Among non-givers, 50% said giving strained their finances, compared with 40% of those who actually made donations.
The report is based on a series of interview panels conducted throughout 2025 and very early 2026, which allowed recording of end-year donations. A full copy of the report is available here: https://www.givingpulse.givingtuesday.org/eoy2025
